Artists cast their minds to issues, ideas and experiences that reveal imaginative insights. And, these find expression in the praxis of the seven artists showcasing their works at Gallery Sumukha in ‘Cinema Verite Redux', curated by Shaheen Merali.
The artists are Subba Ghosh (Delhi), Ravikumar Kashi (Bangalore), Attila Richard Luckas (Vancouver), Parvathi Nayar (Chennai), Charly Nijensohn (Berlin), Prasad Raghavan (Delhi) and Marina Roy (Vancouver).
The images produced by them carry references from lived reality, presenting not so much the visual challenge as an intellectual one in an attempt to decode their artistic language to comprehend the diverse meaning within it.
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The exhibition includes video installations, oil-on-wood portraits, inkjet prints, cut-out paintings on canvas stretched on wood, photographs and black-and-white drawings.
Implicit in their works is a methodology of art-making that focusses more on an engagement with different types of materials and medium, which dictate artistic expression, rather than content.
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Chance has played a dominant role in the works of Ravi Kashi. In his series of photographs titled, ‘Gandhi I Found', which features innumerable images of Gandhi, produced through a reflection in the mirror, the meanings are many.
Social issues
Ghosh tackles many social issues in his works; what come through particularly are his concerns about the prevalent class structures and social disparities. His protagonists are painted with super-realism and mounted as cut-outs on the wall of the gallery, indirectly becoming the centre of public gaze.
Prasad describes himself thus: “I live, show movies and design posters in a basement”. His ‘Decalogue' series comprises millions of compressed images collaged to create a monumental effect. Says Prasad: “I portray minute socio-political and psychological issues through my art.” His works gesture towards desire, false promises and consumerism in an extension of his advertising experiences.
Reflective of urban life
Attila's works, interestingly, are a reflection of the detritus of urban life, where he engages with throwaways such as reclaimed wood panels or sheets to transform into art.
This series can be retraced to 2006, when he made portraits of people in various cities across the world, from Mt. Abu to Vancouver. In these works, he draws analogies with the material as well as the subject portrayed.
Parvathi works with graphites on Gessoed wood blocks. An artist with an empirical approach, she foregrounds her explorations and experiences of the micro world.
The factographic delineation of South Indian heroines of bygone days provokes a distant memory of a vanished culture of painted hoardings as also the concept of memory.
Marina Roy's video installation incorporates her kitschy pop visuals that are animated to convey the “chaos of variety and the mutability of chances”, offering a world of surreality but sensitively laced with wit and sardonic humour.
Charly has produced a series of photographs and videos titled, ‘The Wreck of Man'. It comments on the inclemency and capriciousness of Nature with a narrative on the ravages of time pitted against human life. The photographs in the video have a surreal feel about them, and because of the sandy grey that dominates the work, there is a sense of desolation and despair.
The show is on at Gallery Sumukha until September 20.